Double poles called a 'menace'

Thursday

Feb 27, 2014 at 4:37 PMFeb 27, 2014 at 4:37 PM

Linda KushWoburn@wickedlocal.com

"Double poles are a menace. They are unsightly; they are dangerous."No one on the Woburn City Council could argue with those words of Ward Two Alderman Richard Gately at the Feb. 18 council meeting. He was referring to the eyesores created when a new utility pole is lashed to an old, decaying one as reinforcement until the old pole can be taken down.But as any government or utility company official can attest, double poles are difficult to remove. The job itself isn’t that hard. The challenge lies in coordinating the work of multiple companies and municipal workers to move the wires and streetlights from the old pole to the new."If one company could go out and transfer all the wires, this would be a piece of cake," said Ward Seven Alderman Raymond Drapeau.But that is not possible due to union rules and liability issues, according to William Zamparelli, spokesman for NStar, which owns the poles in Woburn.Earlier this month, while the council considered three NStar permit petitions, aldermen saw an opportunity to force the company to eliminate some double poles. The petitions included a right-of-way request to install an underground conduit for the new Wyman Estates subdivision at Jericho Road. The council had proposed a condition that NStar remove 20 double poles before the work could begin. Woburn developer Brian Melanson had asked the aldermen to drop that condition for fear that it would have delayed completing the subdivision.At the Feb. 18 meeting, Drapeau and other aldermen agreed with Melanson, balking at linking this perennial problem to projects needed to serve residents and developers. Such a requirement, Drapeau said, would penalize the wrong people.Zamparelli and Woburn Department of Public Works Superintendent Jay Duran offered a solution that would not delay utility projects: a multi-utility committee to systematically tackle the problem.But Drapeau, Gately and Ward Six Alderman Michael Raymond had seen this before. Committees were formed, they said, but utility companies failed to show up at meetings. Seven years ago as new aldermen, Raymond and Drapeau began work on a city ordinance to establish standards for double-pole removal and assess fines against the utilities for noncompliance, but they dropped the measure because state legislators were working on two bills to solve the problem."Those two bills sat in committee for four years. In fact they are still in committee. To tie [removal of double poles] to a project, I agree, is wrong, but there should be something to get them done… I propose that we start up the ordinance again. Unless we do something, nothing is going to get done," said Raymond.Dig Safe modelAlderman At Large Michael Concannon suggested another solution based on the Dig Safe model, in which the utilities cooperate to make sure underground lines are identified before anyone digs a hole in the ground. He proposed creating a similar agency at the expense of the utility companies to coordinate removal of double poles."We appreciate that you are taking [double poles] seriously. We want you to take it even more seriously…The cooperation among the utilities is very strong with Dig Safe when you have something at risk. Utilities are very concerned about having their lines disrupted. It doesn’t seem that the utilities are at all concerned about having their double poles removed any time soon," said Concannan.But Duran asked the aldermen to give the new task force a chance."This needs to be positive. NStar is coming to work with us, and the rest of [the utility companies] are too. It’s not adversarial; we’re working together," Duran said.The council passed NStar’s petition for the Wyman Estates project 6-0 with Duran’s proposed condition that the company provide a detailed site plan. Concannan abstained as an abutter to the property, and Aldermen Darlene Mercer-Bruen and Michael Anderson were absent.The other two NStar petitions for rights of way, one at Liberty Avenue and the other at Water Street, were continued until March, allowing Duran time to convene the new committee. City Council President Richard Haggerty asked Duran to report on progress during the DPW budget review."There will always be a certain number of double poles. We have 4,000 utility poles in the city, and we might have 150 double poles," Zamparelli said. "You’ll never get to zero.""We want to get as close to zero as possible," Duran said.